Accounts of women claiming to have been sexual assaulted by Donald Trump are now dropping like autum leaves in the wake of the release of a tape in which he was caught boasting about groping women. This has triggered a bit of debate over why the stories are coming out now, and not earlier this year when there could have been a chance for Republicans to deny him the nomination.

Conspiracy-minded folks would say that the media was witholding information to make sure that Hillary Clinton faced the weakest possible GOP opponent, or at least that organizations were witholding the news until it could do the maximum possible harm to Trump.

I’m always reflexibly skeptical about conspiracy theories, but I think such a debate is beside the point. The reality is that, even if the “Access Hollywood” videotape emerged at the heart of the primaries, along with the steady release of accounts of women describing behavior similar to what Trump was boasting about, it would not have made a difference in terms of the end result of the primaries. Either way, Trump would have still been the nominee, because all of the factors that contributed to his victory would have still existed.